HUMANITIES TENNESSEE BRINGS CIVIL
WAR READING AND DISCUSSION PROGRAM TO CLARKSVILLE

Clarksville,
Tenn. – Beginning in January, 2013, Clarksville-Montgomery
County Public Library will serve as host to Making Sense of the American
Civil War, a scholar-led reading and discussion program. This program is
organized as a five-part series of conversations that aim to get below the
surface of familiar stories about the Civil War battles to explore the complex
challenges brought on by the war.

The selected titles for discussion are: March, by
Geraldine Brooks; Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, by James McPherson;
and America's War: Talking About the Civil War and Emancipation on their
150th Anniversaries, a new anthology edited by Edward L. Ayers and
published by NEH and ALA, which will serve as the focus of three of the five
discussion sessions. The Public Library is pleased to announce that the scholar
selected to lead the discussion series is APSU emeritus history professor Dr. Richard P. Gildrie.

“We are
partnering with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American
Library Association to bring another great program to Tennessee communities,”
said Melissa Davis, Humanities Tennessee’s director of the Tennessee Community
History Program. “I’m pleased that this program delves deeply into experiences
from multiple perspectives, and includes a wide variety of reading selections.” The
Public Library is also partnering with the local Civil War Sesquicentennial Steering Commission to spread the word about the series.

The
reading and discussion program is a five-part series focused on truly making
sense of the breadth and depth of the American Civil War. The five
conversations that make up the program are as follows:

Imagining
War: This first part of the series compares
fiction and firsthand testimony with the novel March
by Geraldine Brooks that tells its story through the character of Reverend
March from Louisa May Alcott’s beloved Little Women, and an excerpt from
Alcott’s journal. The readings illuminate how the war challenges individuals’
beliefs and reveals personal experiences amongst the nation’s chaos.

Choosing
Sides: The primary documents discussed in this
conversation ask the reader to imagine confronting one’s notion of justice,
honor, duty, loyalty—even hypocrisy—in making personal political decisions on
the eve of the Civil War era.

Making
Sense of Shiloh: There’s more than one side to every
story and the horrific Battle of Shiloh is no exception. This conversation dives
deeper than the facts and figures of the battle itself to explore the
shattering impact the battle had upon Americans by looking at a variety of
battlefield perspectives.

The
Shape of War: Three
readings demonstrate the variety of interpretations of Antietam then challenges
the reader to shift the focus from the course of the battle and its
ramifications to the suffering of the individuals and the way death was
confronted.

War
and Freedom: This final set of readings focuses
on the emancipation of four million slaves, and addresses both the politics of
emancipation and the long, fitful course toward liberty and security by freed
people.

The
program will begin at the Public Library in Clarksville Tuesday, Jan 22 at 6:00 pm with scheduled discussions every two weeks. Here is
the entire schedule: January 22nd, February 5th, February
19th, March 5th, and March 19th -- all
sessions beginning at 6:00 pm. The three texts used as the basis of the
discussions are being provided in multiple copies and are available at the
library for immediate checkout for those readers who would like to start
preparing early. The books are located in a special display near the
circulation desk on the first floor. To participate in the discussions
beginning in January, please sign up by contacting Jessica Hartley at
931-648-8826 x61401 or emailing jessica@clarksville.org. Limited
slots are available.

Making
Sense of the American Civil War is presented by
the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.

The
Tennessee program is presented by Humanities Tennessee, an organization created
in 1973 that is dedicated to developing a sense of community through
educational programs in the humanities across Tennessee. The series is part of Civil War, Civil Rights, Civil Discourse,
a project of Humanities Tennessee that seeks to equip Tennesseans to think
deeply about the context of social and political divisions from the Civil War
to the present. For more information,
visit http://www.humanitiestennessee.org/content/making-sense-american-civil-war.

Montgomery County Government complies with the following Civil Rights statutes;
Titles VI, VII, and IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
Americans with Disabilities Act and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975.